The Chilling Autumn
by LynstHolin
Summary: Lily Evans/James Potter Lily and James' wedding day is bittersweet.


Mild suggestiveness, alcohol use.

...

Lily Evans- soon to be Lily Potter- stood in the old-fashioned bedroom in her white satin slip. She raised a slim glass to her lips and took a sip. "Ugh! It tastes like burning tires! Are you sure this is champagne?"

Alice Longbottom held the bottle up. "That's what the label says. It's not like the nearest shop has much of a selection. Are you sure you want to live out here in the country? It's barely civilized. There's not even a place to get curry. The bloody _sheep _look bored." She had her bridesmaid's dress on, a red ruffled number in sheer gauze.

"James loves it here. He grew up in this house, and now that both his parents are gone, I guess that being here makes him feel like he's still close to them." Lily took another sip of champagne; it had not improved any. "Yuck. Maybe we can use this to make mimosas."

Rosie Brown was on the bed, painting her toe nails to match her dress. "Lily doesn't need a curry shop. She's going to be Suzy Homemaker, wearing an apron and cooking all their meals from scratch."

"Shut it," Lily said amiably. Rosie was very vocal about being too liberated for marriage. There was a time when Lily thought the same; somehow, James had changed her mind. But she certainly was _not _going to be some old-fashioned housewife. Lily was a full-fledged member of the Order of the Phoenix, working against the Dark Lord. There would be no cookie baking, or worrying if her husband's shirts were white enough when they came out of the wash, or _aprons_. It was 1978, and Lily was a modern girl- no, modern _woman_.

Marlene McKinnon held Lily's dress. "Are you ready?" Lily put her arms up, and Marlene lifted the ecru gown over her head. It was also fine gauze, but in a simple Grecian style, as ruffles didn't work well with Lily's curves. Marlene zipped it up the back, and Lily tied a thin, braided belt of gold cord around her waist.

As Rosie wielded the curling iron, taming Lily's hair into romantic ringlets, the door flew open and Sirius and Remus came ambling in wearing their matching dress robes. "No men!" Alice ordered.

"Aww, you're all dressed already," Sirius complained. The two men (boys) flopped onto the bed, clearly intending on staying. Remus pulled a flask out and unscrewed the top.

"_Out_!" Marlene had her wand out, and it was shooting sparks.

"Ow! But all the best-looking birds are in here," Sirius protested as he shielded his face with his hands.

"_Women_, not birds, and mostly taken," Rosie retorted as she braided a lock of hair just above Lily's ear.

"_You're_ not." Sirius waggled his eyebrows at Rosie and patted the bed beside him in an invitation. "You look good in red."

"You look good as my ex-boyfriend," she replied tartly.

"Sirius! Remus! Where are you?"

"Don't you dare come in here, James Potter! It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride!" Alice yelled.

When the door opened, it wan't James. Peter came slouching into the room, looking surly. "You two are hogging the firewhiskey," he whined as he joined Remus and Sirius on the bed, making a grab for the flask.

Remus said, "Sirius is trying to make a play for Rosie again, but she's too smart for him."

Peter snickered. "Liberated girls. Who needs them?"

Sirius grinned wickedly. "I like 'em liberated. You don't have to marry them to, well, you know."

"_Out_!" All four women came at them, shoving them off the bed and driving them out the door with shocking hexes. "Bloody morons," Marlene said exasperatedly. "You do realize that when you marry a man, you're practically married to his mates, too, right? You're going to see those idiots every day. It's not too late. You can still back out."

"Or you could just drink heavily," Alice said. "Maybe pop a few pills."

"Oh, they're not _that_ bad," Rosie interjected.

Alice tweaked Rosie's nose. "You still have a thing for Sirius."

"Do not!"

Alice and Marlene looked at each other. "She has a thing for the... thing he has for her, I think." The two women dissolved into giggles. The cheap champagne's distustingness hadn't stopped the women from drinking down a couple of bottles, and it was starting to go to their heads.

"That's very mature," Rosie huffed as she finished a braid above Lily's other ear. She fastened the two plaits together, then placed a garland of daisies and baby's breath on the crown of Lily's head. She applied some peach lip gloss, two dabs of gold eye-shadow, and brown mascara, then leaned back to survey her work, tapping a finger against her chin thoughtfully. "Should I try to cover up the freckles?"

"The wedding is in twenty minutes. You'd need a _week_, at least," Alice said, and Marlene laughed so hard that she had to flop down onto the bed.

"Have you been smoking something that Sirius gave you? Because it's nowhere near that funny," Lily grumped. There was a polite tap at the door. "That had better not be anyone with a pair of bollocks!"

The door opened and Minerva McGonagall stuck her head in. "I'm pretty sure I don't, but perhaps I should check my purse just to be sure," she said drily.

Lily laughed ruefully. "Sorry. The boys are being... boys. Come in."

It still felt strange to Lily, seeing the Hogwarts professor in 'civilian' clothes. She was downright chic in a tailored dress, a smooth up-do, and spectator pumps. She pulled a box out of her handbag. "It's something old, something borrowed, and something blue all in one."

Opening the box, Lily found a blue satin garter, the old-fashioned kind that tied. "What's the story behind this?" she asked, raising one brow.

Minerva smiled enigmatically. "I'll tell you later." She looked in the mirror over the dresser and patted her hair. "It's almost time, girls. Perhaps the bridesmaids should get downstairs." There was a flurry of red gauze, and then Lily and Minerva were alone. "Shouldn't you get your shoes on?"

"I'm going barefoot." Lily sat on the bed to put the garter on.

"Ah. I forget sometimes how informal young people are these days."

"McGo- Minerva?" Lily bit her lip.

"Yes?"

"Do you- do you think James and I are too young to get married?"

"Well, just out of school is very young, but that's what people do in wartime. I was quite young when the wizarding world was fighting Grindelwald, but I still remember a sixteen-year-old witch down the street eloping with her beau." Minerva look at Lily sharply. "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

The garter secured, Lily stood up again. "No, it's just... It's so strange, my family not being here. I mean, even though we haven't been close, I would have thought-" Unexpectedly, tears prickled at the corners of her eyes. "Thank you for coming." The unspoken thought was clear: _You are like family to me, Minerva_. From the expression in the older woman's eyes, Lily knew those were words that never needed to be voiced; they were implicitly understood.

A soft, quick touch on the shoulder, and a wry smile. "You don't need me to give you the motherly talk about the wedding night, now, do you?"

Once they had gone from a teacher/student relationship to Order colleagues, Minerva had started displaying a rather salty sense of humor. Lily was still getting accustomed to it. She giggled as she tried to wipe her eyes without smearing her make-up. "That's quite all right. I think we have it mostly figured out."

The sound of an acoustic guitar filtered up from the back garden, where the ceremony was being held. "It's almost time." Minerva took the bouquet (more daisies, mixed with some marigolds) from the dresser and handed it to Lily. "I'll be in the front row."

The guitarist plucked a few notes of 'The Wedding March' when Lily came out the kitchen door, then launched into the song that she had picked for her walk down the white-paper-covered aisle: 'Let It Be.' She walked alone; no one gave her away, as Lily believed that she belonged to herself. James stood at the other end of the aisle, under a rose-covered arch with the vicar, the bridesmaids, and his three idiot friends. He gawked at her as if he had never seen her before. As she passed the front rows, she saw Minerva sitting where her family should have been, and gave the older woman a brilliant smile.

"You're beautiful," James breathed as she stood beside him. "Please don't kill Sirius."

"What did he do." Lily had to struggle to keep her voice down.

"He- he lost our vows. We're going to have to do the traditional thing."

_Bloody hell_. Lily shot a murderous glance at the best man, who was fidgiting and avoiding her gaze. They had worked so hard on those vows! But they were in front of dozens of people now, and she pasted a smile on her face. "As long as I'm not promising to obey, darling."

"Of course not." A pause. "You really are stunning, you know."

"Are you trying to distract me from planning Sirius' death?"

The song ended, and the vicar cleared his throat. "Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of God..."

...

"You may now kiss the bride," the vicar intoned. James pulled Lily into a clinch, one hand falling on her rump, and damn near sucked her face off. From the taste of his lips, it was obvious he had been into the firewhiskey. Cheers and catcalls erupted, and a few hats were thrown in the air. The guitarist started playing 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' (James' choice). Lily let herself fall into the kiss. She felt light-headed from cheap champagne on an empty stomach, having forgotten to eat all day, and she really didn't remember any of the ceremony that had just happened beyond James sliding a gold ring onto her finger. Laughing against her husband's mouth, she wound one hand into his shaggy hair.

"I think they're going to consummate their marriage right here and now," Sirius quipped.

The wedding dinner was held in a tent. Lily still didn't eat much, but she did indulge in the much superior champagne that was served. When dinner was over, a dee-jay set up his turntables and it was time for their first dance. When the first notes of the song that James and Lily had picked together played, Sirius howled. "A disco song! You're a traitor to rock and roll, Potter!" James made a rude gesture.

"Honestly," Lily laughed, "did he expect us to dance to a Gary Glitter song?"

"Probably." James, though not a natural-born dancer, acquitted himself well enough, going through the simple steps they had rehearsed earlier without a hitch. When he spun her, her gown and hair flared out around her. "You're my first, my last, my everything," he sang. Decades from now, their son would discover a photograph of this moment tucked into a book about common medical maladies of house elves, and he would marvel at how young his parents looked.

The song ended. Sirius protested again when an Abba tune started. Lily found herself dancing with Horace Slughorn, who was, well, slightly beyond tiddly. "Simply smashing, my dear," he kept repeating, his small eyes reddened. Lily deftly avoided getting trampled under his feet. She moved on to Remus, then to Frank Longbottom. She was in the clutches of an ancient great-great-uncle of James' when she heard screams.

Four figures in masks and black hoods barged into the tent, deliberately tipping over the table with the punch bowl. Wands were drawn and aimed at the interlopers. "Leave," Minerva ordered as she got up from her table. "You were not invited."

One of the menacing figures spoke in a distorted voice. "Our Lord just wants to send his regards." He removed a package from his cloak, incongruously wrapped in cheerful pink and white paper, and set it on the gift table. Before anyone could react, the Death-Eaters Apparated away.

James dashed to Lily's side and embraced her. "It's all right, babe, you're safe," he soothed, rubbing her back.

But Lily was shaking in pure rage, not fear. "How dare they," she hissed. "How dare that _filth _invade my _wedding_?" Voldemort had tried to recruit the two of them to his cause just after graduation; he had been impressed enough with Lily's abilities to be willing to overlook her blood status. They had refused, of course, and this was their punishment: the memory of their wedding day was forever blighted.

Minerva levitated the gift to an open area of the back garden. James and Lily followed, along with a dozen curious guests. "Stand back," Minerva ordered. She cast a Shield spell around herself and the package, then blasted it open. In the wreckage of paper and ribbon and cardboard was a shattered crystal vase. She released the Shield spell. "It's not cursed. The gift is of no importance. It was just a demonstration that they can break through our wards."

Lily turned away, hiding her face against James' neck. She heard people murmuring their farewells; no one could stay in a festive mood after what had just happened. "Lily, I'm so sorry." Rosie hugged her from behind. Sirius piled on, and so did Remus and Alice and Frank, and soon Lily was laughing through tears at the ridiculous spectacle of their group hug.

"We'll all stay here tonight," Remus said. "Just in case they decide to come back."

Lily gave James an unsure look. The wards had already been broken. The place where they were going to start their life as husband and wife had been tainted, in her mind. "We'll be fine, Lily-bear," he said, rocking her in his arms slightly, as if he was comforting a baby. "I'll keep you safe."

Lily really wanted to believe him. The September day had started as warm and blue-skied and perfect as one could have wished for, but a chill was moving in. Lily wondered how long it would be before she felt truly warm again.


End file.
